Monday, December 5, 2016

This time of year can be TOUGH on a teacher. Take a moment to BREATHE. Our biggest challenge in the classroom is keeping students engaged and motivated as we forge ahead. Below are some of my favorite ways to keep students active and learning as we make our way through December.

Not only does the infographic below include steps for integrating one of this years HOTTEST new trends, but embedded in infographic are links to 4 of my FAVORITE lesson ideas!! FREE!

And as if these ideas aren't enough, I'm also participating in a Blog Hop!! Enter the contest and check out all of my teacher affiliates sharing their great secondary sanity savers and a chance to win dozens of great prizes!

Friday, October 21, 2016

Did you ever had that ONE lesson or that ONE activity in your classroom that clicks so well that you just want to shout it from the rooftops? Last week, for me, was one of those moments and I simply MUST SHARE!

I called it "YOU be the Archaeologist" and through some chance of enthusiasm, digital magic, inquiry based exploration or SOMETHING, my students spent a week exploring hominid fossils like PaleoAnthropologists. Their little noses were enthusiastically buried in details about Australopithicus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthal (and of course, Homo sapiens)....but it was SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT! They had a mission...a purpose...a puzzle to ponder. I'd opened a vault of inquiry.

It all centered around Homo Naledi...a National Geographic archaeological find that occurred within the past few years that has revolutionized our understanding of what it means to be human. To my students, Homo Naledi was introduced as mystery fossil, and all they knew was this:

The hook, of course, was digital...I gave them 3D models of fossils to evaluate. 3D models that are publicly available for anyone to use online (PC only) OR you can write Duke University for permission to download the 3D models for printing or for use on iPads (which I did, of course)!!!

On a PC, this model can zoom in, zoom out AND be rotated to any angle for viewing!

Armed with the question, data sheets on each early hominid, and 3D Models of each hominid to explore, the students discussed their findings, and gathered their data together on their field notes.

Their discussions were compelling and their observations were incredibly detailed. Eleven year old students were considering physical traits of early hominid fossils and how those traits impacted the lives of those hominids. They were discussing skills and abilities of early hominids, such as ritualized burial ceremonies and how such a skill represented a more or less sophisticated species.

They discussed, evaluated, synthesized, compared...I could bury DOZENS of other Bloom words into the description, but the one most important to me wasthey were inspired!

Sixth graders evaluate actual 3D Models of hominid skulls

They worked with determination, and to finalize their query, they had to make a decision. "Where on the evolutionary chart might this mystery fossil fit?" They used their evidence to support their decision. This was evidence based writing with a purpose.

After the big reveal of Homo naledi, we watched Lee Berger discuss the discovery of Homo naledi. We heard his passion as an explorer and we were inspired by the five incredible women who risked their lives crawling through the chamber to retrieve the fossils. Tom's talk ends with a call to future generations to prepare themselves to make discoveries and use technology to inform themselves. He continued with a message that can apply to ALL teachers at ALL levels, for it will be the hallmark of successful, engaged, critical thinking classrooms, and when he said the words, it gave me chills.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

One year later and a LOT of patience and I'm finally finished with my Augmented Reality sandbox!!! Needless to say I can't WAIT to share it with my students and colleagues. She's all set up in my classroom and ready to go. Curious what it is? This blog provides an overview on how I obtained the grant, the resources required to build one yourself and how I got the beast up and running!!

The Grant

Toshiba America Foundation was the GENEROUS supporter of this project. In December, 2016 I was notified that my request for $1,500 was approved. Here's a link to the actual grant that I wrote including standards alignment, supplies, budget, rational, etc.

The design and construction of the actual box was truly up to me as long it followed general dimensional guidelines. The final size of my box was: 40"x30". Here are some specs that I followed.

Construction of Mounted Unit

Constructing the mounted bracket proved to be a BIT more troublesome and it took me a few goes to get the brackets mounted onto the vertical 2 x 4s and the camera aimed at the box correctly. It was also tricky getting the kinect sensor approximately 40 inches from the surface of the sandbox. Here is the configuration that worked for me:

After I had everything in place, I used bungee cords to secure the equipment, and the zip strips to get the electric cords snug and secured out of the way.

Mixing the Medium

Some websites will say you need to buy Sandtastic White Sandbox Sand which is a kinetic sand designed to be very moldable. I was able to use a 50 lb bag of play sand and mix it with six cups of corn starch and six cups of water. Once you've added the corn starch and water, harness your inner child and stir vigorously with your hands.

Technical Components

Downloading Linux was the next hurdle. Having NEVER used Linux this step was VERY VERY frustrating. The key was to have a CLEAN PC with no operating system on it. I used UBUNTU which guided me through downloading the operating system onto a jump drive and then I did a clean boot from that jump drive to get the operating system onto the new PC.

The directions HERE were fabulous. They took me STEP BY STEP through the process of installing Ubuntu, calibrating the Kinex, aligning the Kinex, calculating the base plane, measuring the 3D extent of sand surface, positioning the projector, calibrating the sandbox and finally adjusting the sea level.

YES there was some frustration. Some things INTUITIVE to the writer of the directions were NOT SO INTUITIVE for me. Here were some of the roughest patches:

#1. Opening a Terminal WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!?!? It was a simple right click on the screen and a blank window popped up in UBUNTU for me to type the code(s) provided in the directions.

#2. The Kinect is FUSSY!!! Unplug and replug it often. It HAS to be a generation one or the plug isn't compatible with the PC.

#3. Read, re-read and follow the directions REALLY REALLY CAREFULLY SO THAT YOU DON'T MISS A COMMA, A PERIOD, A DIGIT, ANYTHING OR YOU'LL BE TEARING YOUR HAIR OUT!!!!

#4. Measure. ARE the sensor and projector the right distance from the box? #5. When you are calibrating the sandbox, if the target isn't green, IT ISN'T CALIBRATING! This took me AWHILE to figure out and caused a lot of teeth gnashing.

Using the Sandbox

Honestly, once it's working it's like WOW.

Where to From Here? What to DO with the Sandbox.

Now that it's in my classroom....just add kids!!

Investigate Elevation Maps

First we will use existing elevation maps re-create and label the maps on the AR sandbox. They can screen capture their work (or take a picture with an ipad) and upload it to Google Classroom. The mere process of manipulating the sand to create the elevation and topographical features mimicking an existing map will aid in their learning of elevation maps and the associated scales on the maps.

Recreate Land Forms

Students will be placed in groups and challenged to recreate the area upon which a civilization that we are studying has settled. For example, they can recreate the subcontinent of India, include the Himalayas, label the Indus River Valley and Mohenjo-Daro and include the significant features of the sub-continent. A guide map will be provided but students need to have the landform properly labeled and the elevations must be appropriate.

Invent NEW Areas for Settlement

Students will be given an opportunity to create/invent a NEW WORLD within the sandbox. It will then be their challenge to determine what type of civilization is likely to develop there. They can compare/contrast that civilization with an existing civilization to determine what types of agriculture that civilization is most likely to engage in, what type of government they'd be likely to create, where invaders are most likely to threaten, etc.